The U.S. Navy's Tactical Tomahawk (TacTom) cruise missile is on track for a full-rate production decision in June, according to service officials. The Navy recently completed flight tests as part of the TacTom's operational evaluation, which could help pave the way for the production decision and for the achievement of an initial operational capability this summer.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Northrop Grumman is awaiting formal approval from the U.S. Army to produce 33 Viper Strike munitions for deployment to Iraq, according to a company official. "The Army's in the process right now of completing the operational needs statement" for the deployment, Northrop Grumman Viper Strike Director John Miller said at a March 4 briefing at the Association of the United States Army's winter symposium here. General Richard Cody, the Army's deputy chief of staff, G-3, is expected to sign the statement "any day now," Miller said.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which has just won a $21 million contract for production of AN/AAR-47 missile approach warning systems, is in line to produce still more of the systems. The $21 million contract is the fourth production option to an existing sensor upgrade contract first awarded in 1998. The kits and systems required under this contract will be delivered to the U.S. Navy and Air Force, and U.S. allies, for integration into various aircraft, according to ATK.
U.S. military, government and private sector officials told House lawmakers March 4 that the defense and aerospace industrial base is healthy, innovative and responsive, although it still faces challenges.
To stay profitable in a flat satellite market, in the last few years EADS SPACE has restructured itself and reduced its staff by 30 percent, CEO Francois Auque said March 4 at a press conference in Washington. France-based EADS SPACE now includes Astrium, SPACE Transportation and SPACE Services. In 2002, EADS SPACE had 3,200 employees. By the end of 2004, the company expects to have 1,200 employees, Auque said.
Aviation electronics maker Rockwell Collins predicts that its defense market will continue to grow, President and CEO Clay Jones said March 3 at the Bear Stearns Commercial Aerospace and Defense Conference in New York.
MOSCOW - The Russian state commission on radio frequencies has simplified the procedure for using very small aperture terminal (VSAT) communications satellite ground stations. The new procedure eliminates a lot of the paperwork that potential VSAT users needed before working with Express or Yamal satellites. The clearance process for using two-kilowatt Ku-band VSAT terminals now will take about 20 days, instead of about 200. The change is for Express and Yamal networks only.
Defeating enemies who may use newly developed U.S. warfare technology against American forces over the next decade is a top military concern, an Army research and development official told Senate lawmakers March 3. "We may have the greatest technology but the next day the bad guy learns how to use it against us," Brig. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright, deputy commanding general for systems-of-systems integration for the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, told Senate Armed Services Committee members.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Lockheed Martin's Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank (LOSAT) missile system will finish developmental testing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., next week, to be followed by five weeks of Army testing and a low-rate initial production (LRIP) decision in June, according to a company official.
To protect the shipbuilding industrial base, the U.S. Navy has decided to fine-tune its DD(X) program plans, Navy officials said March 3 at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. The Navy is expected this week to send to Congress a detailed report on the surface combatant industrial base. One issue is easing the transition for the shipbuilding industrial base between the DDG fleet and the future DD(X) fleet, which includes filling in a gap in fiscal 2006 when the Navy is not scheduled to procure a major surface combatant.
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) is gearing up for its fourth multinational experimentation exercise (MNE), which will simulate stabilization operations in Afghanistan, according to the MNE director. The exercise could be held in July 2005 or in February or March 2006, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Ed Whalen told The DAILY.
The U.S. Air Force is ramping up its pursuit of a new long-range bomber, forming two offices to study the matter and accelerating the planned fielding of a next-generation system by as much as a dozen years.
TANKER WORK: Boeing has selected Pratt & Whitney as the baseline engine source for its 767 Global Tanker Transport Aircraft Programs, the company said March 3. P&W's PW4062 engine will be the standard production engine for future domestic and international tanker programs, Boeing said.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency hopes to launch as many as half a dozen satellites by 2012 to test a space-based Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) system, agency documents show. "By 2011-2012, our space-based test bed will have a thin constellation of three to six spacecraft on orbit," MDA wrote in a recently unveiled "justification" of its fiscal 2005 budget request.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The teams led by Lockheed Martin and Boeing-Northrop Grumman that are competing to build the Joint Common Missile (JCM) are investing their own money on advance risk reduction work as they await a contractor downselect in late April, according to company officials. The JCM is to replace the Hellfire and Maverick missile and fly on multiple aircraft, including the AH-64 Apache and AH-1Z Super Cobra helicopters as well as the Navy and Marine Corps' F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. A team led by Raytheon also is competing to build the JCM.
ROSETTA AWAY: After more than a year of delays, the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet rendezvous mission successfully launched March 2. Rosetta is to be the first mission to land on a comet when it visits Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014.
The U.S. Air Force has made a slight increase in the number of F/A-22 Raptors it plans to buy, reflecting cost savings identified last year, according to documents and a service spokeswoman. Documents recently prepared for Congress to explain the Bush Administration's fiscal 2005 budget request show that the "current program estimate supports procurement of 277" F/A-22s, up from the 276 figure the Air Force had previously presented as its purchase target.
NEW DELHI - India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will supply tail rotor blades for Bell 206 helicopters under a $5 million contract from Bell Helicopter. The deal, agreed to at the Asian Aerospace 2004 show in Singapore, likely will lead to expanded collaboration between HAL and Bell, HAL Chairman Nalini Ranjan Mohanty told The DAILY. He said the contract will be signed later. Bell approved HAL last year as an authorized component repair and overhaul provider for the 44 Bell 407s operating in the civil and defense sectors in India.
